Free Expression

A new addition to the array of resources available to stores celebrating Banned Books Week (September 22 - 28) is a banned books list compiled by ABFFE that highlights a greater number of recent titles in addition to classics.

A consequence of Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations is that a real battle is brewing to restore the privacy rights taken away by Section 215 of the Patriot Act, writes ABFFE President Chris Finan.

In an effort to make it easy for booksellers to celebrate Banned Books Week –– which takes place from September 22–28 this year –– the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) today announced a collaboration with Ingram Content Group.

On Monday, members of the Media Coalition filed an amicus brief asking that the United States Supreme Court review a decision of the New York Court of Appeals that upheld a content-based tax on communication protected by the First Amendment.

The Campaign for Reader Privacy is urging its supporters to immediately call members of Congress to request support for the Amash amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill, which will be voted on either Wednesday or Thursday of this week. The amendent would bar the NSA from obtaining the telephone records of people who are not suspected of engaging in illegal acts.

BISG to present first annual industry awards; More students seek illegal alternatives to textbooks; Media Coalition concludes gun violence and media connection flawed; Frommer’s to start releasing print titles; IPG and Trafalgar Square acquire new clients; 2014 BEA Global Market Forum to focus on books in translation; NCAC to host free speech benefit

The Campaign for Reader Privacy — a joint initiative of ABA, ALA, AAP, and PEN American Center — called on Congress this week to pass legislation to restore privacy protections for bookstore and library records that were stripped by the Patriot Act as a first step toward reining in what the group calls “runaway surveillance programs.”

Chris Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, discusses the debate on government surveillance and reformation of the Patriot Act –– especially as it pertains to booksellers.

School ban on Perks of Being a Wallflower overturned; Where’s Waldo? hits a milestone; U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey appointed to second term

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has joined the ACLU, the American Library Association, more than 80 civil liberties, government reform, and digital advocacy groups, and several companies in protesting the National Security Agency’s surveillance of the telephone records and Internet activity of American citizens.

A week after Colorado booksellers challenged a law restricting the display of magazines about marijuana, the State of Colorado agreed not to enforce the law. Lawyers for the state acknowledged that the law, which would have forced retailers to display any magazine that focuses on marijuana or marijuana businesses behind the counter, was unconstitutional.

Income from the online and live auctions of children’s book art held in conjunction with this year’s BEA increased by 50 percent over the previous year’s auction results. Proceeds from the auctions support ABFFE’s defense of the free speech rights of young readers.

Tattered Cover Book Store, Boulder Book Store, ABFFE, MPIBA, and several newsstands filed suit on Monday to block enforcement of a Colorado law that violates the First Amendment rights of retailers to display magazines that focus on marijuana and of customers to browse those publications.

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has received an initial royalty check from sales of the Coffee House Press title Read This! Handpicked Favorites From America’s Indie Bookstores, compiled and edited by Micawber’s Books owner Hans Weyandt.

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has released several videos of bestselling authors Sherman Alexie and Laurie Halse Anderson discussing how to fight the censorship of young adult books.